Thread by @USAS_WW1

#ships #navy #WWII #USNavy - Let's tour IJN Yamato, WWII's most impressive battleship.↖️Yamato on trials, 1941. ↗️Yamato's original config from history.navy.mil/our-collection….↙️Yamato after 1944-1945 refit from Tamiya. ↘️ Yamato's death, April 7, 1945. 1/

2/ Yamato, her sisters Musashi and Shinano (completed* as an aircraft carrier) were WWII's three mightiest vessels. Yamato's main armament was 9 x 18.1"/45 guns. 45 calibers = 67' 10" long! Here is a stern view focused on Yamato's #3 turret on Sept. 20, 1941 during construction.

3/ Yamato's secondary armament was 4 x triple 15.5 cm (6.1")/60 guns arranged in a diamond formation: front, back and one per side. They were removed from Japan's Mogami-class↘ naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/japan/moga… light cruisers when the Mogamis were upgraded to new twin 8" gun turrets.

4/ She was built with layered AA: 6 × twin 12.7 cm (5") DP guns, 8 × triple 2.5 cm (1") AA, 2 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52") AA machine guns. The 5" guns had the most range and punching power. The .52" MGs were fast but shorter range. The 1" MGs were in between. deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Yama…

5/ In 1944-1945, Yamato's original 6.1" flank turrets↖️were removed to dramatically increase AA↗️ to 12 × twin 12.7 cm (5") DP guns, 162 x 2.5 cm (1") AA, 4 x 13.2 mm (0.52") AA machine guns↙️. I assume the space left by the 6.1" turrets ↘️provided plenty of AA ammo storage.

6/ Except at reddit.com/r/WorldOfWarsh…↖️and themodellingnews.com/2020/07/previe…↗️, I can't find good Yamato diagrams. But I've toured New Jersey, Olympia, Yorktown, Alabama, Hornet, Laffey, etc. Based on that and this ↙️Mogami diagram, I'll guess at what's where.

7/ Broadly speaking, a battleship's bow has living quarters. The stern has living quarters, crew galley/mess, brig, etc. The center has the engines/boilers and uptakes. In between are the main turrets with their handling rooms. The bottom has fuel, water, magazines, stores, etc.

8/ Based on Mogami, I'd guess the Middle Deck bow is for Senior Officers. We see state rooms, etc. Below that on the Lower Deck might be for Junior Officers as the rooms are smaller. The Bulk Deck bow seems for Stores. I hope our Japanese friends or other experts can correct me!

9/ Center: the Middle Deck (top row)'s center has the uptakes flanked perhaps by the various "offices" such as the Supply Office, Disbursing Office, Post Office, Ship Store, etc. The Low Deck and Bulk Deck have the 12 boilers followed by 4 steam turbines generating 150,000 shp.

10/ The Stern's Middle Deck and Low Deck were devoted to the Crew's berths, galley and mess and probably the Brig and various shops/rooms for Repair, Laundry, Showers, Barber, Lavatories, Library, Snack Shop, Chapel, etc. The Bulk Deck was for the propeller shafts, etc.

11/ Let's talk about the three 18.1" gun turrets. Each was several stories tall. The Iowa-class battleship turrets were six stories high with a crew of 77, so Yamato was similar. The bottom floor had powder. The shells were above that. Hoists took shells and powder to the guns!

12/ Let's examine the Yamato-class superstructure/conning tower. This clusters the bulk of the ship's decision making/sensors and communications: radars, gun directors (IR, optical), bridge, pilot house, chart house, radio room, etc.

13/ REMINDER: Please jump in with corrections to my guesses! :) weaponsandwarfare.com/2021/04/10/ijn… has these two great diagrams for Fuso↖️and Yamashiro↗️. Yamato's top had a 15m range-finder on the Main Superstructure per forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/top…↙️ and a 10m one on the rear↘️.

14/ The tall "pagoda" superstructures have many observation decks. Higher sensors and eyeballs might give a first spotting advantage. So Main Rangefinder Deck (drum), Main Control Deck (windows), Battle Bridge (four down with windows), Navigation Bridge (one down with portholes)?

15/ These were flagships. So there would have been Admiral's Quarters and Captain's Quarters including perhaps a shower, toilet, bedroom and wardroom with easy access to the Main Control Deck and Battle Bridge. These might have been mirror images on the port and starboard sides.

16/ Yamato's bulbous bow was pioneering in massive warships but not the first, which was 1910's USS Delaware↖️. 1935's SS Normandie↗️ was the first very large ship with one. But Yamato ↙️↘️took it to a new level. These cut water resistance allowing greater speeds with less power.

17/ Yamato's stern fascinates! She carried seven Nakajima E8N or Nakajima E4N floatplanes, two catapults and a hangar deck below! Flanking the hangar were two boat hangars for lifeboats/launches. A system of tracks and the giant deck crane tied it all together.

18/ I wish I could read Japanese or that there were plans of Yamato. If you have corrections, comments, or anything, please let me know. To my Japanese friends on Twitter, I especially ask you! Here's CGI #Yamato #大和- by @zozi009!

@zozi009 19/ I especially wish to thank @MucusArt for the nudge to make this thread. These are photos from the famous 1/10th scale model (built for a 2005 Yamato movie) at the Yamato Museum in Kure (where Yamato was built), Hiroshima, Japan.

https://twitter.com/MucusArt/status/1582849149908942848

@zozi009 20/ If you liked this battleship Yamato thread, you'll enjoy this @BattleshipNJ thread. It might give you a better idea of what it was like inside Yamato too.

https://twitter.com/USAS_WW1/status/1556313770930176001